JP Morgan head Jamie Dimon pockets 51% pay rise

Wall Street firm gives chief executive a $5m cash bonus and pays for family's move from Chicago

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• Graeme Wearden
• guardian.co.uk, Friday 8 April 2011 11.49 BST
• Article history

JP Morgan chief executive Jamie Dimon's remuneration package indicates Wall Street pay is returning to pre-crash levels. Photograph: Jessica Rinaldi/Reuters
Jamie Dimon, the head of JP Morgan Chase, received a pay rise of about 51% last year including a $5m (£3m) cash bonus, a move that angered campaigners for a levy on the banking industry. Dimon's remuneration package, disclosed by the bank on Thursday night, is the latest sign that pay on Wall Street is returning to pre-crash levels as its biggest players post higher profits. The 55-year-old chief executive was awarded stock options worth $17m and a "cash incentive" of $5m in 2010, on top of his basic salary of $1m. The previous year he had received no cash bonus and stock awards of just above $14.1m. In 2008, the year of the financial crisis and the collapse of Lehman Brothers, Dimon received just his base salary. Dimon has run JP Morgan since December 2005. The bank fared much better than its Wall Street rivals during the financial crisis, acquiring Bear Stearns in 2007 and Washington Mutual a year later. The bank made a net profit of $17.4bn in 2010, almost 50% higher than a year ago. David Hillman, spokesperson for the Robin Hood Tax campaign, described Dimon's pay deal as "the latest example of the bloated pay and profits of the banking sector." "Banks that have escaped the consequences of an economic crisis they caused should be made to pay a Robin Hood Tax to help those still struggling with its effects," Hillman added. A Robin Hood, or transactional, tax would involve a very small levy on each financial transaction conducted by a bank. Supporters say it would raise about £20bn in the UK. Documents filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission also show JP Morgan paid Dimon $421,458 in moving expenses, $95,293 to cover "personal use of aircraft" and $45,730 for "personal use of car". JP Morgan explained the Dimon family had moved from Chicago to New York in 2007 after their children finished high school, but only found a buyer for their old house in 2010. The moving expenses include more than $300,000 in real estate agency commission and fees, but do not cover the likely fall in the value of the house due to the slump in the US housing market. "It is not the firm's policy to reimburse employees for losses incurred on the sale of a home in connection with a relocation and no such reimbursement is included in the amounts listed as moving expense," JP Morgan said. The details of Dimon's pay package came just a week after it emerged that Goldman Sachs had almost doubled the pay of its CEO, Lloyd Blankfein, to $18.6m. That included a $5.4m performance-related cash bonus.